Frost_Salamander

I just had a quick look at the usage in my missions: s_mindistance = 0 is set on some speakers used for weather sounds (e.g. wind), probably because it didn't make sense for that sound to fade. But I think setting both s_mindistance and s_maxdistance to the same value and also setting s_omni to '1' would probably have been a better way to do it. The prefab furniture/tables/desk3.pfbx (and desk3_old) has both s_mindistance and s_maxdistance set to 0 by default. I guess it is meant to be tweaked by the mapper and I didn't notice it. the prefab mechanical/machines/printing_press.pfb has a speaker called 'speaker_machine_stop' and both s_mindistance and s_maxdistance are set to 0 by default. Looks like I missed that one too.

Is it possible for the mapper to choose which comes first?

Yes I've noticed this as well - there is definitely a bug somewhere. It happened to me several times on my last FM and I had to keep fixing it.

Will DM you...

I feel I should add - due to my blunder with the volumetric lights shadows I didn't realize I that I was looking at soft shadows for maps instead of stencil when I was comparing them. After some more playing around I definitely see that soft shadows with stencil looks better. So I get what all the fuss is about now.

Sorry - my response was a long way of saying I'd be fine with going to maps only as a strategy. I voted option 1. But this is without understanding some things in your top post. What is an 'Alpha-tested shadow occluder' and how does it affect me as a mapper? What is an example of a translucent object that won't cast shadows?

Apologies, this is where I went wrong. It happened to be a volumetric light shadow I was looking at

I'm no graphics nerd, but I can barely tell the difference between the two. What I can tell from messing around a bit: soft shadows of low quality look like garbage with both maps and stencils (EDIT: wrong, I didn't realize I was looking at shadow maps for a volumetric light shadow. Stencil definitely looks better). increasing soft shadow quality decreases performance in both implementations. I think the CPU/GPU of the end user would influence which is gives better performance both maps and stencils can produce a pixelated shadow if you look close enough. (EDIT: wrong. Again, was looking at a volumetric light shadow). I tend to use maps, because for whatever reason I seem to get a few more FPS out of them. As a mapper, I am certainly NOT interested in endlessly tweaking a scene to make the shadows look perfect. I just don't care enough. If they look shockingly bad I will put some effort into it though (which will probably mean just disabling them for the offending entity). It's rare that I feel this is necessary though. So I guess I don't really get the argument that stencils are amazing and maps are crap. I just don't see it or am too dense to notice. (EDIT: indeed I was being dense. I was comparing shadow maps with shadow maps because I was looking at a volumetric light shadow). Also, in my last couple of missions I had graphical bugs that only showed up with stencil shadows enabled. It would be nice to not have to deal with that all the time.

Yep. I'd gladly include an automap in my missions.... if someone else were to draw them all for me.

I would only leave it as worldspawn if you need it to act like worldspawn. For example, if you have a nodrawsolid_wood brush covering a wonky wooden model and you want AI to be able to walk over it smoothly or it is to perform some sealing function. Other than that, just make a func_static so it gets filtered out in DR when you want to only look at sealing brushwork. So no harm in leaving it as worldspawn, but on the other hand you might get some benefit to making it a func_static.

I've added tdm_show_viewpos and screenshot_viewpos to here: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Console_Useful_Controls I know they are already mentioned here, there isn't much of an explanation about the arguments and it's nice to have all these commands on one page.

I was actually using Windows - so maybe not?

Getting a bunch of warnings on map start, I think related to subtitles? It happens when I put the AI entity 'atdm:ai_townsfolk_female' in my map. WARNING:Couldn't load SRT file 'subtitles/lady02//tdm_ai_lady_alertdown_to_idle_heard08.srt' for sound 'sound/voices/lady02/tdm_ai_lady_alertdown_to_idle_heard08.ogg' according to decl 'tdm_ai_lady02' WARNING:Couldn't load SRT file 'subtitles/lady02//tdm_ai_lady_alertdown_to_idle_seen_evidence04.srt' for sound 'sound/voices/lady02/tdm_ai_lady_alertdown_to_idle_seen_evidence04.ogg' according to decl 'tdm_ai_lady02' WARNING:Couldn't load SRT file 'subtitles/lady02//tdm_ai_lady_idle09.srt' for sound 'sound/voices/lady02/tdm_ai_lady_idle09.ogg' according to decl 'tdm_ai_lady02' WARNING:Couldn't load SRT file 'subtitles/lady02//tdm_ai_lady_idle11.srt' for sound 'sound/voices/lady02/tdm_ai_lady_idle11.ogg' according to decl 'tdm_ai_lady02'

What do you mean by 'transparent'? You mean filter them out? If so you can already do that from the 'Filter' menu item at the top of the screen.

Let me guess - was it the:

I don't know if it's mentioned anywhere else on the Wiki, but it's worth mentioning that the first global keywords are for sound: // Use on of the predefined surface types like: // none, metal, stone, flesh, glass, wood stone And this: //surftype15 //description "carpet This is a carpet texture." I think this is sound as well, but I also think 'description' does other stuff, for example for using with vine arrows: stone description "vine_friendly" If someone has a list (or link to code) where all this is defined for TDM so mappers are aware, that would be useful. I would also move the 'special keywords' section up so it's before the obsolete stuff - that old stuff needs to be relegated to the very bottom. I would also change the title of that section from 'No ambient and frob -stages needed' to something like 'Deprecated stages' and say it's just there for historical reference.

It is confusing. The first example shouldn't have the frob highlight section in it, and a note should be added to the text saying the example is for version 2.11 and greater. The subsequent stages should be under a different heading clearly labelled as being deprecated/obsolete and they are only there for reference.

yeah this is what I meant, sorry for any confusion. Daft has mentioned this several times as motivation.

I was asked to help test the mantling changes and I was neutral about them, but I am supportive of any changes that might encourage new players while at the same time not ruining my own experience. Since upgrading to the 2.12 beta branch I've got used to the faster mantling and quite like it now. Same with the frobbing changes, leaning and all the other stuff that's gone in.

I'm a huge fan of those games, but I'm putting off getting BG3 because I'm a bit too worried they'll be too much like the Divinity games (from Larian). Those were good, but a bit too cartoony for me and I never came close to finishing them. I just didn't feel compelled to invest the time into them. If you don't want to manage a party in Baldurs Gate games, just go solo. Your one character gets all the XP instead of it being spread out among the party members . If you feel you are missing out on companion quests, you can just take them in your party while you do their quest and then ditch them.

Well, if you say so. If I remove the 'areaLock' spawnarg from the rain patches, it falls through the roof and it looks the same whether the door is open or closed. I'm just saying that opening the door doesn't seem to make the rain appear inside as you suggested above. Regardless, I'm not advocating the areaLock method, just reporting observations.

yeah totally. One of the outputs of this discussion will be to update that page.

I haven't personally run it so not sure how long it actually takes. @Amadeus how long did it take for WIS? @stgatilov To make runParticle part of dmap, is there a way to check if runParticle needs to be run or not first? For example, if there are no particles present with 'collisionStatic' keyword than just skip it. I wouldn't say this is big deal, but it's a manual step that the mapper could easily forget to run on release day... I meant the default weather materials - but Amadeus covered that in his question - thanks. Actually this doesn't seem to be the case. The rain seems to stay outside the visleaf if the door is open. In the example screenshot from inside the Inn in In Plain Sight, the rain patch actually extends over the roof of this building. With the door open, the rain 'stays outside'. However, you're right and still with this method you need to use individual patches and place them carefully (although I didn't have to worry about the height). It's not perfect because rain will still poke through awnings and stuff outside.

I just recently became aware of this feature: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Particle_collisions_and_cutoff Unfortunately I completely missed it, as when I went to create weather effects in my FMs I just followed this (which doesn't mention it): https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=A_-_Z_Beginner_Full_Guide_Page_3#Rain_and_Snow The point of this thread is to a) make people aware of it and b) gather feedback from any mappers that have used it so we can get some mapper-focused documentation in the Wiki. The page above is great for background information about how it works, but as a mapper I really just want to know: What are the limitations of this (i.e. when should it be used and when shouldn't it be used)? Why isn't it the default behaviour? Why all this work to get it into the map? What built-in support for it exists (particle definitions, materials, etc). Do I need to create all this stuff myself? Texture layout vs. Linear layout: what's the difference in the end, pros/cons, why would I use one over the other... Why does it need a separate command (runParticle)? Can this just not be bundled in with dmap? A clear, step-by-step instruction on how to implement it in a map from beginning to end using a simple use case. Tagging some users who have relevant experience with this: @stgatilov @Goldwell @Amadeus

Creating a new thread for this as it was being discussed in an old beta-testing thread starting here: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/21822-beta-testing-high-expectations/&do=findComment&comment=490751 I suppose the main questions are: when should this spawnarg be used, if at all? why was it introduced in the first place? Can we get it documented properly on the Wiki so misuse isn't propagated? @stgatilov @Dragofer